VILLAGERS' PLEA: DON'T MOVE US TO WOKINGHAM

PEOPLE in a village south of Reading have launched a campaign to stop being moved into MP John Redwood's Wokingham constituency.

Theale parish is currently part

of Martin Salter's Reading West

parliamentary constituency and before the last boundary reorganisation in 1974 it was in Newbury.

Now the Boundary Commission has announced that Theale will be moved into Wokingham for the next parliamentary elections, provided there are no objections.

However, Theale Parish Council has objected and last Tuesday called an assembly of villagers to gauge their views.

Around 34 Theale residents added their objections, although many arrived too late to make their voices heard.

However, the unanimous decision at the assembly means that West Berkshire Council is obliged to carry out a poll, provisionally set for August 7, which will be forwarded to the Boundary Commission.

Cllr Desmond Hoad said: "We have absolutely no links with Wokingham. There are no transport links and no traditional ties at all.

"If they feel they have to move us, then it would be more sensible to move us into Newbury because Theale is in the West Berkshire

district and was formerly in the Newbury constituency.

"Moving us to Wokingham just doesn't make any sense at all."

Objectors are also baffled because the purpose of the reorganisation is to keep constituencies roughly the same size as each other.

But if Theale's 2,216 voters stay where they are, Reading West has 72,294 voters and Wokingham 71,721.

In a letter to the Boundaries Commission, parish clerk Jo Rueth said the proposed transfer would be "against the interests of the residents in Theale".

The unusual constitutional step of calling for a poll comes under Statutory Instrument number one of the Representation of the People Acts 1987, which gives 10 people in the parish the right to call on the district council to hold a poll on a matter they feel strongly about.

Cllr Hoad added: "This is a law that is not widely used and not widely publicised because the district council must hold the poll, but can charge the parish council for it.